


By The Sea

by ultchangki



Category: Monsta X (Band)
Genre: HyungWonho - Freeform, M/M, One Shot, angst I guess?, hyungwon loves seashells, mentioned hyungnu, mentioned jookyun, mentioned kiho - Freeform, mentioned monsta x, theyre also a metaphor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-14
Updated: 2019-01-14
Packaged: 2019-10-10 08:46:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,558
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17422682
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ultchangki/pseuds/ultchangki
Summary: Hyungwon and Hoseok were all they had. Until they didn't.





	By The Sea

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Judi! (I love Judi)](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Judi%21+%28I+love+Judi%29).



“Do you remember the day we met?” Hyungwon turned to face the elder, watching as he formed his response.

“Of course I do, it was May 15th 2009.”

“No,” Hoseok laughed softly to himself. “It wasn’t, actually.” He rubbed the silver-haired’s back reassuringly for his incorrect answer. “I know you pride yourself in remembering every little detail about us, but there’s some I remember too.”

“Oh, really? I thought you had such an _awful_ memory, Hoseok. I doubt you remember what you had for breakfast.” Hyungwon leaned forward to pick a few seashells within reach on the sand.

“I don’t, you’re right. That’s because none of them are as important to me as you are to me.” Hoseok wiped his black hair out of his face gently while smiling. He watched as Hyungwon slowly got less interested with the conversation, and more interested with the seashells. He looked like an angel, his hair dancing with the breeze as he carefully chose every shell.

“It was May 14th, 11:52 at night, when I biked to the grocery store and was stopped by you.” Hoseok’s smile faded slightly as he continued. “You didn’t even say hi, you just told me to be careful; that it was dangerous around here. I was just a scared 13 year old in a new neighborhood, and you made me feel safer with just a few words. You walked me to the store stating no one should be out that late alone. All of that, and I still never caught your name that night.”

The younger’s eyes welled up once he let the words sink in. _You made me feel safer._ He was thankful his back was turned to Hoseok. He didn’t want the older to see how emotional he was with the subject.

“Well, we didn’t truly meet until the following day. Your mother came to our door and said that you were our new neighbors.” Hyungwon smiled, turning around to gift Hoseok a few shells. “You were hiding behind your mother, but felt more comfortable when you saw me. And then years passed, and we just grew to be each other’s best friend.” The younger tried to end the memories there, knowing if they were to continue, he’d start infinitely crying.

“You know what else I remember, Won?” Hoseok inquired, getting lightly sprayed by the waves crashing slowly against the coast. “I remember the first time we came here! This exact beach, and this exact spot.” Hyungwon nodded; he remembered, too. “We were talking about songs, and which songs resembled us. Well, _I_ was talking about songs. You were busy collecting shells.”

“But _then-_ ” Hyungwon started, only to be interrupted.

“But then, you brought me back a conch shell, and asked me if I could hear the ocean in it. Do you remember what you said once I said yes?” The elder reached out his hand to the younger, hoping he would take it.

“I do.”

“What did you say?”

Hyungwon softly inhaled. “I told you that’s the song of the ocean, and it could be ours too.”

Hoseok nodded and laughed. “I remember the first time you came and slept over. _Years_ after us meeting.”

“Yeah,” Hyungwon said in defeat. “It was because your mom never let you have sleepovers.”

“And your parents never let you have sleepovers, either.”

“No, just not with you.” Hyungwon giggled. “They always thought we were dating and didn’t want to encourage it.”

“Oh, please.” The wind blew more shells their way, leading to another distracted Hyungwon. “I didn’t like you that way.”

The younger nodded again, failing to find words.

“We were how old then? It was 2013, so,” Hoseok counted slowly on his fingers, careful not to skip a year or two. “I was 17? You were likely 16. I remember how crazy that night was.”

The younger picked five new shells. “I remember, too. I just wanted to cuddle you and watch Santa Buddies but I guess Jooheon had other plans.” The older lightly punched the younger and giggled.

“Hey, my brother isn’t _that_ bad. He was stressed because of that date, you know? The same way you were with Hyunwoo the first time?”

Hyungwon smiled. “You know I love Jooheon, I just wish he didn’t barge in the room asking for love advice past 10 pm.”

“He really liked Changkyun. I guess he wanted to impress him, you know?”

The collector rolled his eyes as he stood to look for more shells. “Of course _you’d_ know. You were the one who stayed at the gym for ten weeks just to impress Kihyun.”

Hyungwon picked a blue shell the size of his hand, staring lovingly as Hoseok protested against Hyungwon’s prior statement.

“You know, Hyungwon, looking back, I can’t imagine any of our memories with anyone but you.” The silver-haired tilted his head down, hoping his bangs would cover the one tear he couldn’t fight. “I remember when you first met my cousin. You remember when you met Minhyuk, don’t you?”

“When he started hitting on me within five minutes of your two week long family trip to Paris? Absolutely.”

Hoseok laughed. “And then I convinced him you were my boyfriend… He sure backed off after that.”

“It wasn’t hard to convince him considering _everyone_ thought we were together.”

“Not everyo-”

“Everybody I’ve ever met. Didn’t help how you always led me on.”

The black-haired’s smile fell completely. “It wasn’t on purpose… I liked you too, you know… at one point. 2015, but you were dating Hyunwoo.”

“Yeah, to get over you.”

A few minutes of silence followed, Hoseok staring into the distance while Hyungwon picked more shells. The older decided to join too, this time. “Why have you found so much joy in collecting seashells, Wonnie?”

“Seashells are beautiful. Some look similar, but never the same. They’re always different and special in their own way, just like every memory I share with you.” He nodded before he continued. “I’ve associated every shell I have picked with a memory of you.”

“Don’t you have nearly three-thousand shells?”

He confidently nodded.

“That’s a lot of memo-”  
“You know I never kissed Hyunwoo, right?”

There was silence before Hyungwon started again. “I never kissed Hyunwoo because even when I was with him, I couldn’t help but think of you. It wasn’t fair to either of you. I’m sorry.”

The elder brushed his hair off his face. “You were waiting?”

“For what?” Hyungwon answered all too quickly.

“For me?”

The younger opened his mouth to speak, but then closed it immediately after. Instead, he nodded slowly. “You were my first friend, my first sleepover, my first concert, and I always wanted you to be my first kiss too.”

“You said you _were_ allowed to go on other sleepovers?”

Hyungwon lied down in the sand, playing with his new blue shell in his hands. “Allowed, yes, but I didn’t have friends. You know that. Now, stay focused. I’m trying to tell you how I feel ab-”

He was interrupted by Hoseok’s lips completing the distance with his own. The initial emotions were various versions of shock, but it eventually transformed into comfort. They stayed there for nearly two minutes, but it didn’t feel like any time had passed. To them, the time seemed to have stopped.

The older pulled away first and formed a gentle smile on his face. “You’re my first, too. I think it’s beautiful we got to kiss with our song playing in the background.” He pointed out to the sea.

The younger couldn’t even speak. He just wanted to hold Hoseok close and never let him go, but he was too afraid of his emotions. He noticed that as every second went by, less and less shells resided on the shore.

“I’m glad we got to come here one last time, Wonnie. I’m going to miss you more than you’ll ever know.” Hoseok sighed and gave Hyungwon one last embrace, not knowing the next time they would ever see each other again. “Maybe sometime soon, we can dance to our song again together.”

Hyungwon sprung up in his bed and looked towards the clock. 5:14 in the morning on May 15th, 2019, exactly a year since Hoseok left. Everyday, Hyungwon regrets letting him leave the way he did. They fought for the first time days before Hoseok’s departure and so they left off on bad terms. A tear fell as he thought of how he let the best thing in his life slip out of his hands all too easily.

He at least still managed to keep all 2895 shells, 2985 memories, all displayed neatly on the table in the far left corner of his room. Right in the middle rested the largest shell, the conch holding their song. He walked over with the intentions of listening, but everytime he did, the song never sounded as beautiful as it did when Hoseok was sharing it with him. He walked back to his bed and laid there, waiting for sleep to take him and his tears once again.

He fell asleep soon enough. This time, there were a myriad of shells, but no Hoseok to be found. He ran towards the largest conch he could find on the island, and held it up to hear their song.

“Next time, I’ll pick you instead.”

**Author's Note:**

> hi!! im sorry its not all that good, i just had a random idea at 2 am and decided to act on it... at 2 am... HSDGHSHDHS i was half asleep during at least 70% of the writing process so i apologize. i dedicate this to judi because judi loves hyungwonho and i love judi!!  
> the seashells are a metaphor for time and memories. when the beach was losing shells, that represented hyungwon losing time with hoseok.  
> im sorry if there are any plotholes... once again i wrote this really late and its just for fun! i think im going to do a monsta x bingo challenge or something! i found a fic bingo and i guess this classifies under the category of "childhood friends au"! thank uuu i hope you enjoyed this really short one shot!! and happy bday hyungwon :D


End file.
